In other news

Lots of other odds and ends going on. David and I went for an amazing bike ride to Daft Eddy’s and back. It’s a very popular ride for cyclists, partly because you get to sit and enjoy a lovely view before cycling home. David e-mailed me a photo he took but I can’t download it so no evidence.
I had lunch with my friend Aelish, originally from Castlewellan (about 45 minutes from here) but she’s lived most of her adult life in the U.S. She was back visiting her dying brother.
I had tea with one of my Queen’s professors one day and with a friend from church another. I try to get out of the house regularly to avoid cabin fever.
Most importantly, the CEO of Preventable Surprises announced that the funding for the organisation will run out at the end of the month. That isn’t entirely a surprise as PS has always felt fairly contingent to me. When the chair left a month ago, I realised we might have fundraising problems. When the CEO announced he was living recently, I knew I had to get out too. He didn’t get on well with the organisation’s founder and neither do I.
But applying for jobs here is a major pain--an application can run to 12 pages and take days if you have to research and write something. You can’t send in your CV, you have to copy and paste all the information into whatever goofy format the employer creates. You have to write multiple essays explaining why your experience and skills align with each of the six, 10, or 14 position specifications.
I’ve sent two applications in during the last two weeks. I don’t have a good feeling about either. I think I’m at that age where I just can’t be arsed to come up with a hard sell for myself. I have a bit too much of the “take me or leave me” attitude. Which isn’t quite the keen attitude required.
It could be that freelancing is the better road for me. I just wish I had a network in Northern Ireland--something that’s difficult to develop when you work with a London-based organisation on mostly U.S.-based issues.
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